Off We Go

thai blog (2), originally uploaded by Robbi Baba.

We left San Francisco just after midnight, the morning of March 8th. We had a layover in Taipei and then Bangkok, where we caught a flight up to Chiang Mai, arriving about 20 hours or so after we'd left.

My friend Susan had recommended Chiang Mai as a good starting point. The plan was to spend a few nights there, then head about and hour further north to Chiang Dao, where we would be in the countryside and treating Joyce to some gourmet food at the Chiang Dao Nest. Then back to Chiang Mai for a few more days, and travel by train down to the ruins at Old Sukhothai.
After a day or two there we planned a stop at the Ayuthaya ruins then on to Bangkok by river boat.

As it turned out we pretty much stuck to this plan, except that we stayed an extra day in Chiang Mai and Old Sukhothai and skipping Ayuthaya (and an extra train ride) we flew into Bangkok. We never considered heading south of Bangkok to the beach resorts. The Tsunami had hit Thailand hard only a few months prior and the area was still deep in recovery along the West Coast. We met travellers going to Koh Samui on the Eastern side, and they made it sound so inviting, but to us it seemed a bit risky still. And our time was just too short. We also expected to get our beach fix in Bali, and maybe even New Zealand.

Pretty much everywhere we went we deeply wished we could have stayed longer. Especially Bangkok, where we had only one full day! An extra week or two would have been much appreciated!